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Meat from three horse carcasses contaminated with a banned drug has entered the human food chain
in France, but there is no danger to the public, the French farm minister said yesterday.

The meat, which came from a lot of six British carcasses exported to France, contained traces of
phenylbutazone — known as bute — an anti-inflammatory painkiller for sporting horses, banned for
animals intended for eventual human consumption.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said there was no danger to public health.

“One would have to eat

500 horse hamburgers every day in order to run a risk,” he said at the Paris farm show.